Agenda Item No: 5
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Agenda Item No: 5 Extension to existing wood waste recycling facility and erection of a workshop (retrospective) AT: Unit 1, 35 Benwick Road Industrial Estate, Whittlesey, PE7 2HD APPLICANT: East Anglian Resources Ltd LPA NO: F/2009/16/CW To: Planning Committee Date: 15 December 2016 From: Head of Growth & Economy Electoral division(s): Whittlesey South Purpose: To consider the above planning application Recommendation: That planning permission is granted subject to the conditions set out in paragraph 10.1 Officer contact: Member contact Name: Helen Wass Name: Post: Development Management Officer Portfolio Email: [email protected] Email: Tel: 01223 715522 Tel: 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 This report relates to one of two applications submitted at the same time which relate to development at an existing waste wood recycling facility for which planning permission F/02001/13/CW was granted in 2013 (see paragraph 6.1). 1.2 The second planning application (reference F/2008/16/CW) has been submitted to carry out the development without complying with conditions 3, 5 and 6 of planning permission F/02001/13/CW. This is the subject of a separate report to this committee (agenda item 4). 2.0 THE SITE AND SURROUNDINGS 2.1 The recycling site is located near the centre of a primarily industrial area, to the south of Whittlesey Station. The industrial area extends from the Ely to Peterborough railway line to the north, to the Whittlesey Dike to the west, and water-filled former mineral workings to the south. The land to the east is in agricultural use. The recycling site is part of Benwick Road Industrial Estate. Its immediate neighbours are a waste transfer station and land used for HGV trailer parking to the west, industrial buildings to the east and south, and an area of woodland and open water (Railway Lakes County Wildlife Site) to the north. Land to the south west has planning permission for a food store and petrol filling station. Tesco has advised that it does not intend to implement the permission. 2.2 The access to the recycling site from the B1083 Benwick Road also serves the neighbouring industrial units. The closest residential property is 32 Benwick Road, which is approximately 180 metres to the south of the site, and to the south of Benwick Road. There are a small number of houses within 230 metres of the site to the south west, which are near the junction of Benwick Road with Station Road and Turningtree Road and to the south east on Benwick Road. 2.3 Railway Lakes County Wildlife Site (CWS) adjoins part of the recycling site’s northern boundary. Lattersey Local Nature Reserve CWS is immediately to the north of the railway line. 3.0 THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT 3.1 The development for which planning permission is sought and the subject of this report is: i) the retention of an extension to the south increasing the area of the recycling site by 0.25 hectare to 1.26 hectares (excluding the access road); and ii) the retention of a workshop (15 metres x 9 metres x 6 metres high) in which to store tools and equipment and carry out plant and HGV repairs and maintenance ancillary to the wood waste recycling operation. The workshop is situated in the southeast corner of the extension area. 3.2 The purpose of the proposed development is to enable the recycling site to be operated more efficiently. The extension area is currently used (without planning permission so is unauthorised): to store rejected material e.g. plastic, cardboard and metal before it is taken off site for disposal or recycling; to store processed wood; for parking machinery associated with the wood recycling; and as the location of the workshop. 4.0 CONSULTATIONS 4.1 Fenland District Council (Planning) – Raises no objections. Given the predominantly industrial character of the area and scale of buildings directly south of the site, the revised layout change and extension of the site is unlikely to have a significant effect on the visual amenity of the area, particularly when viewed from the street scene. In essence the character and appearance of the area will not significantly alter. Given the site’s location is relatively distant from residential units and with existing buildings acting as a buffer, it is not anticipated that residents would be directly affected by the proposal. Advice should be sought from the Environmental Protection Team about the potential amenity impacts of the development. 4.2 Fenland District Council (Environmental Protection) - Has received complaints about noise and dust from activities at the site and about operations taking place outside the existing permitted hours, despite the site having an environmental permit from the Environment Agency. Increasing the throughput and hours of use without greater compliance with the permit may result in an increase in complaints, in particular about dust. 4.3 Whittlesey Town Council – No comments received. 4.4 Environment Agency – No objections in principle to the extension of the site as the land is already subject to an environmental permit. 4.5 Highways Development Management – Extending the site area will allow the annual throughput to increase. This is the subject of application F/2008/16/CW. The [originally] proposed maximum annual throughput of 50,000 tonnes equates to a little over 10 HGVs per day or 1 vehicle within a peak hour. This is not a significant increase and does not warrant mitigation or justify a reason for refusal. 4.6 Fire and Rescue Service – See paragraph 8.17. 5.0 REPRESENTATIONS 5.1 The occupiers of one nearby residential property object to the application for the following reasons: Benwick Road Industrial Site has always worked from 7am until 6pm with respect for local residents. Most of the firms actually work Monday to Friday from 7.30am until 5pm with no weekends and no bank holidays so are likely to have no reason to object to EARL's request of extra working hours. EARL, despite the existing planning conditions, already start working before 7am. Lorries enter and leave the site at night (between midnight and 6am). The headlights and use of the horn causes disturbance. Increased capacity will result in higher stockpiles that will generate more dust and pollution to local water courses. There have been 5 buildings / businesses burnt to the ground in recent years, in and around the Benwick Road Industrial Site. If EARL have a fire it will burn for months, be uncontrollable and create a huge hazard to the local houses as well as disrupt many other businesses. EARL do not have suitable or effective dust barriers. The proposed hedge planting will be ineffective to provide a dust screen. The restriction on operational hours should cover loading and unloading, moving heaps around as well as processing, because dust is generated by all these practices. 6.0 PLANNING HISTORY 6.1 Planning permission F/02001/13/CW was granted on 13 June 2013 for a wood waste recycling facility for a temporary period expiring on 30 June 2018. The development comprises: - the reception and open storage of waste wood; - the use of a mechanical digger/handler to sort wood; - the use of mobile plant to shred wood to create a products suitable for use in panel board manufacture or as biomass fuel; - Portakabin-type buildings for use as an office, canteen and toilets; - a weighbridge; - car parking spaces; and - a pond for collecting surface water which is used for dust suppression. 6.2 Condition 5 limits the throughput to 15,000 tonnes per annum. Condition 6 limits the receipt, processing and dispatch of waste to between 0700 and 1800 hours Mondays to Fridays and between 0700 and 1300 hours on Saturdays with no working on Sundays or Bank Holidays. 7.0 PLANNING POLICY AND RELEVANT GUIDANCE 7.1 Section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and section 70(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 require that applications for planning permission must be determined in accordance with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. The relevant development plan policies are set out in paragraphs 7.3 and 7.4 below. 7.2 The National Planning Policy Framework (March 2012), the Waste Management Plan for England (December 2013) and National Planning Policy for Waste (October 2014) are also material planning considerations. 7.3 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Minerals and Waste Core Strategy Development Plan Document (adopted July 2011) (the M&W CS) CS2 – Strategic Vision and Objectives for Sustainable Waste Management Development CS18 – Waste Management Proposals Outside Allocated Areas CS32 – Traffic and Highways CS34 – Protecting Surrounding Uses CS39 – Water Resources and Water Pollution Prevention CS41 – Ancillary Development 7.4 Fenland Local Plan (adopted May 2014) (the FLP) LP1 – A Presumption in Favour of Sustainable Development LP2 – Facilitating Health and Wellbeing of Fenland Residents LP3 – Spatial Strategy, the Settlement Hierarchy and the Countryside LP11 – Whittlesey LP14 – Responding to Climate Change and Managing the Risk of Flooding in Fenland LP15 – Facilitating the Creation of a More Sustainable Transport Network in Fenland LP16 – Delivering and Protecting High Quality Environments across the District 7.5 The Location and Design of Waste Management Facilities Supplementary Planning Document (adopted July 201) (the DPD) 8.0 PLANNING CONSIDERATIONS 8.1 The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out the Government’s planning policies and how these are expected to be applied. It is a material consideration in planning decisions and at its heart is a presumption in favour of sustainable development. It states that: Proposed development that accords with the development plan should be approved without delay; Where the development plan is absent, silent or relevant policies are out-of-date, permission should be granted unless any adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, when assessed against the policies in the NPPF taken as a whole; or specific policies in the NPPF indicate development should be restricted; and Proposed development that conflicts with an up-to-date development plan should be refused unless other material considerations indicate otherwise.